Nick Tosches
American |genre = |subject = |movement = |influences = |website = }} Nick Tosches ( ;The documentary film Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow in which Tosches appears as an interview subject. born 1949) is an American poet, journalist, novelist, and biographer. Life Of Albanian descent, Tosches was born in Newark, New Jersey. Tosches was born in Newark, New Jersey. His surname originated from Albanian settlers in Italy, known as Arbëreshë; his grandfather emigrated from the village of Casalvecchio di Puglia to New York City in the late 19th century. According to his own account, Tosches "barely finished high school". He had a variety of jobs, including working as a porter for his family's business in New Jersey, as a paste-up artist for the Lovable underwear company in New York City, In the early 1970s, he was a snake hunter for the Miami Serpentarium, in Florida. A fan of early rock and roll and "oddball" records, he also began writing for rock music magazines, including Creem, Fusion, and Rolling Stone. He was fired by Rolling Stone for collaborating with Meltzer in filing record reviews under each other's byline. Tosches' initial book, Country: The biggest music in America (later retitled Country: The twisted roots of rock and roll), was first published in 1977. It was followed in 1982 by Hellfire, a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, and in 1984 by Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll: The Birth of Rock in the Wild Years Before Elvis. He subsequently wrote biographies of the singer and entertainer Dean Martin, the Sicilian financier Michele Sindona, the heavyweight boxer Sonny Liston, the country singer Emmett Miller, and the racketeer Arnold Rothstein. Tosches has worked as a contributing editor of Vanity Fair magazine. His work has also been published in Esquire and Open City. He has published 4 novels, Cut Numbers (1988), Trinities (1994), In the Hand of Dante (2002), and Me and the Devil (2012); and a collection of poetry, Chaldea and I Dig Girls (1999). He also worked on Never Trust a Loving God, a book in collaboration with the French painter Thierry Alonso Gravleur, a friend of the writer.Birnbaum, Robert. "Nick Tosches's Unpredictable Enthusiasms and Obsessions Are Worth Paying Attention To". Morning News. Retrieved 12 August 2013. Tosches was featured on the popular Travel Channel show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations in the episode "Disappearing Manhattan". He and Bourdain shared a drink at Sophie's, a Manhattan dive bar in the East Village, and discussed the changing nature of the city. Writing Tosches has been described as "the best example of a good rock journalist who set out to transcend his genre and succeeded," and as someone who "along with Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer and a handful of other noble notables from the era... elevated rock writing to a new plateau." His 1982 biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, Hellfire, was praised by Rolling Stone magazine as "the best rock and roll biography ever written." He has described his literary influences as "Hesiod, Sappho, Christopher Marlowe, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, Charles Olson, and God knows who else." A compendium, The Nick Tosches Reader, collects writings from over the course of his career. Publications Poetry * Chaldea / I Dig Girls. New York: CUZ Editions, 1999. Fiction * Cut Numbers. New York: Harmony Books, 1988. * Trinities. New York: Doubleday, 1994. * In The Hand Of Dante. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002. * Me and the Devil: A novel. Boston: Little, Brown, 2012. Non-fiction Biographies * Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis story. New York: Grove Press, 1982. ISBN 0-8021-3566-8 * Dangerous Dances: The authorized biography (with Daryl Hall & John Oates). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984. ISBN 0-312-35716-8 * Power on Earth. New York: Arbor House, 1986. * Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams. New York: Doubleday, 1992. * The Devil and Sonny Liston. Boston: Little, Brown, 2000 **published in UK as Night Train: The Sonny Liston story. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2000. * Where Dead Voices Gather. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. * King of the Jews: The Arnold Rothstein story.. New York: Ecco Press, 2005; London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006. Journalism * ''Country: The biggest music in America]]. New York: Stein & Day, 1977 **also published as Country: Living legends and dying metaphors in America's biggest music. New York: Scribner, 1984. * Unsung Heroes of Rock N' Roll: The birth of rock in the wild years before Elvis. New York: Scribner, 1984. * The Last Opium Den. New York: Bloomsbury, 2002. * Never Trust a Loving God. New York: Somogy Art Stock Books, 2009. * Save the Last Dance for Satan. New York: Kicks Books, 2011. Juvenile *''Johnny's First Cigarette''. Vagabonde, 2014. Collected editions * The Nick Tosches Reader. New York: Da Capo Press, 2000. ISBN 0-306-80969-9 Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Nick Tosches, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 28, 2015. Audio / video Film and television * Louis Prima: The Wildest!,1999 * Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow, 2005 * Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film, 2006 * Mobsters, in the episode "Tommy Lucchese", 2008 * Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations in the episode "Disappearing Manhattan", 2009 Discography * Blue Eyes And Exit Wounds, with Hubert Selby Jr. and produced by author Harold Goldberg, 1998 * Nick & Homer, with Homer Henderson, 1998 * Fuckthelivingfuckthedead, 2001 * For the taking: Vol. I from CHALDEA with Rick Whitehurst 2006 See also * List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *"He Who Is of Name" ;Audio / video *Nick Tosches For the Taking (Tosches' poetry set to music by Rick Whitehead) *Nick Tosches at YouTube ;About *Nick Tosches at Byliner * Nick Tosches at Vanity Fair * Nick Tosches Official website. *Author interview: Nick Tosches at Identity Theory, 2002. * NIck Tosches: The ESQ&A at Esquire * "Saint Nick" by Mike Miliard, The Boston Phoenix, September 26, 2002 (review of In the Hand of Dante) *"Nick Tosches, Revisited" - review of The Nick Tosches Reader Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:American non-fiction writers Category:American novelists Category:American biographers Category:American poets Category:American music critics Category:People from Newark, New Jersey Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets